Summer And Winter-use Different Baits Or Not??

I Have A Question For Everyone Does It Matter Season Wise What Bait Should Be Used?me And A Buddy Of Mine Where Talkin About This In Our Fishin Trip Friday Night.i Was Just Wondering What Some Seasoned Pro's Got To Say On This.

It has been my experience to try a few different baits no matter what time of year it is. At the lake that I usually fish, shad is usually the bait of choice. However one summer me and a friend were fishing at the indian creek portion of mark twain lake right before a storm, I gave him some shad, while I was fishing with chicken liver. I caught a whole striger of catfish, while he caught 3 or 4 turtles. Don't know why but that's what happened. I always take live perch, shad, worms,and maybe livers and just experiment to find out what is working that day. Most baits work best when fresh. I have heard that goldfish work especially well for flathead in the spring, but that hasn't been my experience. Hope that helps.

I use the food that the catfish are eating naturally. In the spring, dead frozen shad. In the summer, live bluegill and shad. In the fall, pretty much everything works. In the winter, I go hunting.:big_smile:

I use the food that the catfish are eating naturally. In the spring, dead frozen shad. In the summer, live bluegill and shad. In the fall, pretty much everything works. In the winter, I go hunting.:big_smile:

For colder weather blue cats I would recommend using cut bait, and downsizing it compared to summer. Sometimes it seems like they just won't hit anything big, but a 1-1.5" chunk of shad will entice them. (Credit goes to Catfishcentral for that tip, which has helped me out a lot) I just don't have much luck fishing live baits when the water temps get below about 55 degrees, and I've spent a lot of time on the river bank freezing my toes off figuring this out. It may be different in your waters, though, so don't completely write off live bait, but definitely get some cut bait out there.

If the Catfish act anything like bass then it will make a differance what lures you throw in winter and and summer. During winter I could go with something that smells a lot worse and summer something that looks more lively.